Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Venice Will Now Charge Day-Trippers for Access to City Center

Beautiful view of traditional Gondola on famous Canal Grande with Rialto Bridge at sunset in Venice, Italy with retro vintage Instagram style filter and lens flare effect. (photo via bluejayphoto / iStock / Getty Images Plus)

Felice anno nuovo! Benvenuto a Venezia! Ora per favore pagaci.

Sounds nice in Italian, doesn’t it? But the translation might be a little harsh to some travelers.

Happy New Year! Welcome to Venice! Now please pay us.

After previously instituting a daily tax on overnight visitors – not unheard of and certainly akin to visitor taxes attached to your hotel bill in many cities – the great City Of Canals will now start charging all travelers who wish to visit.

Even those just passing through for the day.

Luigi Brugnaro, mayor of Venice, announced in a pair of tweets Sunday night that the city will begin charging all visitors, not just those who spend the night.
Loosely translated, the tweets stated that “Now the contribution of disembarking #Venezia is law! We will study a balanced and participated regulation that protects those who live, study and work in our territory. It will help us to better manage the city, to keep it clean, to offer avant-garde services to the guests and to make the Venetians live more decorously.”
Venice is one of the most visited cities in Europe, with 25 million tourists spending time at such cultural landmarks as its famed canals, the Piazza San Marco, Saint Mark’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace and the Burano, among others.
But the city has had difficulty keeping up with the increase in visitors, and Brugnaro suggested there is an overwhelming cost to cleaning the city and maintaining security that has only been borne by Venice’s residents.
British newspaper The Guardian reported Monday that visitors will be charged up to 10 euros, with a sliding scale depending on the time of year, although Brugnaro said no fees were yet set.
Other reports suggested the new fee could be added to those arriving in the city by train, bus or cruise ship.
The Guardian also noted that tourism has so overwhelmed the city that UNESCO, which already deemed Venice to be a World Heritage City, is investigating whether to put the city on its list of endangered heritage sites.


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